


Kolibri

by attaccabottoni



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 18:00:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19978204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/attaccabottoni/pseuds/attaccabottoni
Summary: Before the Night of the Long Knives, its planners sometimes referred to the purge asKolibri(Hummingbird), the codeword used to send the execution squads into action.In a battle for the soul of a nation, Germany makes a hard choice.





	Kolibri

**Author's Note:**

> After a trip to Germany, Poland and Czech Republic, I found this fandom. Feel free to kick me out of it for writing this.
> 
> I’d include historical notes, but as this is based on pure speculation and not meant to be taken as factual, I decided to end it where it did. Would you let me know if you want me to add an epilogue chapter with the notes anyway?
> 
> Inspired by everything I learned in the trip (Potsdam was the most enjoyable, go see it if you could), World War II could be seen as Germany unilaterally destroying himself and his brother. How did they both survive?
> 
> This is my attempt to answer that question.

**1884:**

“Look outside, West. It’s a beautiful day. Why are we spending it cooped up here in the library?”

“You promised to spend the day with me, brother. I intend to collect. We haven’t finished planning for contingencies.”

“I choose to spoil my little brother on my day off, and this is the thanks I get? More work?”

“If you are going to complain, then do it to the person who trained me to be diligent.”

“I didn’t train you to be so dull. I could walk out of here and devote myself to fruitful activities, in the company of people who are far more creative with their ideas of enjoying themselves.”

“You’re going to do sit ups while ogling the painting of Friedrich der Große all day, you mean.”

“Ahem. That’s no way to talk to your older brother. Going back to the topic at hand, why are you so obsessive about your plans that you feel the need to keep me to yourself all day for my input?”

“Is that supposed to be a criticism? I’ve seen your maps. They are more detailed compared to what the General Staff has to offer. And you are more obsessive about dates and appointment schedules than anyone I know.”

“Who else can match my awesome memory? Besides, better to keep your underlings on their toes. Otherwise it’s just bad for discipline.”

“So we are in agreement, then?”

“Oh, all right. I should have guessed you’d end up more stubborn than I am. What do you want to know?”

“What is our contingency plan if we were both captured?”

* * *

**1934:**

“I refuse.”

No one moved, yet all eyes in the room turned to his brother.

He can hear the humourless smirk in Prussia’s voice. “You all heard me. No one here is older than I am, nor aged fast enough to claim their ears have gone hard of hearing.”

Someone shouted to the left, “You dare defy der Führer, you—”

“Prussia will never mutiny,” Germany said evenly, cutting off the accusation before it could be spoken, not bothering to take his eyes off his brother.

“That’s right.” Prussia had stepped forward to the table before making his earlier pronouncement. He could not see his brother’s expression, only that his shoulders were squared in perfect posture. “I know my duty, and I will see it through to the end. That is why I speak my mind when I disagree with the decision I am going to be expected to carry out.”

Someone scoffed behind them. “Don’t make us laugh with your high-handed display. Your refusal is dereliction of duty.”

“One that does not come about lightly, as it is from Prussia.” Der Führer leaned back on his chair, his hands forming a steeple in front of him. “Go on, explain your reasoning.”

* * *

“Tsk. That is the wrong question, West. And before you say anything, it’s not, ‘What is our plan so we avoid ever getting captured,’ either.”

“Then, what is the procedure upon capturing the enemy?”

“Correct. Planning backwards from the worst result starts from what will happen if the existing procedures we have were turned on us.”

“Better to base it on what we have already in place, because our plans are more efficient than anyone else’s.”

“Of course. Our ways are the best ones that our enemy can learn from. It wouldn’t do to underestimate what we ourselves are capable of.”

* * *

For Germany half a century ago, this would have been the moment he started sweating and getting light-headed. At present, though he was having a hard time blinking normally while tracking the number of weapons and everyone’s relative firing position, his heartbeat stayed calm. Once he assessed the room, he brought his attention to back Prussia’s words, which ended with, “Lastly, we have to be factual about the accusations. After all, they are still veterans. Using the Gestapo on our own people could hardly be efficient, and the whole operation runs under the assumption that the public will not see who will reap the benefit from all the deaths. It’s bad logistics, and bad for discipline.”

He detected a movement in the corner of his eye. Germany looked down to see Prussia’s right hand, which stayed on his side at attention, and watched his ring and middle fingers curling slowly towards his palm.

Germany hardened his resolve.

* * *

“Listen, West. Here is the worst that can happen. If we get captured together, their best weapon is to try to use us against each other. You have to get the upper hand by any means necessary, giving no sign as to what you’re doing so they will never catch on. We don’t get subdued without a fight. As soon as I give you this signal,” hand raised, three fingers pointing upward except the ring and middle fingers, “that means, ‘I know what I’m doing, let me handle this, don’t give them anything.’”

* * *

“I hear your objections, and I find that your concerns for precision should be set aside in favour of moral superiority. They forfeited their rights to protection as citizens the moment they spread their poisonous plot to throw our country into chaos. It is they who are the real threat to our people, and an obstacle to our future.” Der Führer placed both hands on the armrests. “While you are there dispensing your wisdom to us as a nation, tell me. What would be a fitting way to deal with a subordinate who needs to rectify his disrespect?”

Germany stood stock still as the focus of everyone in the room fell on him.

There was no time for Prussia to take his next breath before he was slammed face first on the table.

* * *

“That said, let us begin. The first thing I would do is to separate the leader and bring him down fast and hard. That way, I won’t give him time to prepare or brace from the blows. When the others can’t look away from their leader struggling to get away from the pain, you weaken their defenses so it will be a simple task to put them all on restraints.”

* * *

The only noise Prussia made was a grunt when Germany twisted his arm behind him. Germany bore his entire weight down to ensure his brother won’t try to use his legs to kick himself free.

He briefly glanced across the table, alert to any shifting below him. “I judged it best to take swift action and settle this immediately,” Germany said. “Would I be permitted to take on this task?”

Der Führer nodded. “You have my complete confidence.”

“You deeply honor me, sir.”

“I am sure you will give Prussia sensible terms. As soon as they are amenable to him, I expect that he will continue working with us.” He stood up and proceeded to walk to the exit. “Now if you will excuse me, I believe the dogs are in need of feeding.”

The door had barely closed before Germany heaved Prussia off the table and punched him in the face.

* * *

“If it’s an enemy leader that earned your respect, then it’s all the better. It would be like tearing a strip off a junior officer who did great work with the limited options he had, but in a foolish and possibly lethal manner. You have to do it from a tactical perspective. You don’t do it half-heartedly, because you’ll waste his potential and your time. You don’t let yourself enjoy it either, because it’s bad for—?”

“Discipline.”

“You got it. The more impersonal you are about it, the more useful the result would be.”

* * *

Prussia dodged and deflected the next blows, and tried to jab him with his elbow, but Germany has trained with his brother to know which strikes Prussia favored to use against opponents. Because Germany rolled with the next counter punch, Prussia was unprepared for the kick to his leg, causing him to stumble. A knee to the chin winded Prussia enough for Germany to yank his left hand behind him, swinging it as he pushed his shoulder downward.

There was a loud pop of a dislocated shoulder followed by Prussia gasping in pain. Germany neglected to anticipate that Prussia could still act after a shock to his body, quickly twisting his wrist free and rolling to sweep a kick behind his knees. Prussia made a one-handed grab for him the moment he fell to the ground, but Germany managed to pull someone’s firearm from its holster on his way down. Prussia was about to land a blow when he found himself facing down the muzzle of a gun.

The only sound that could be heard was the click of the chamber being filled with a bullet, and their harsh breathing. The entire fight barely took a minute.

“Take your beating like a good soldier,” Germany said, careful not to put any emotion in his voice. He precluded any response from Prussia by swinging the butt of the gun to the side of his head.

* * *

“How do you know if you’ve done well?”

“You want him to be helpless, but not useless, especially if you want to interrogate him after. It’s no good to forget the limits a man can take. You don’t want to break him enough that it kills him. Why waste the effort?”

* * *

Some officers who remained in the room started talking among themselves.

“It’s a pity about Prussia. The damned communists would rejoice to see a once powerful nation so reduced.”

“How ironic that the veterans he was defending earlier are the ones who want the Prussian generals gone.”

“They do not deserve his defense any more than a nation deserves to be punished like this.”

“The old must make way for the new. We will do what we must to strive to make the achievements of our age better than the generation before us.”

Germany committed to memory those who did not speak, yet did not look away.

He was still giving Prussia a brutal kicking when someone suggested, “Perhaps a fortnight in Dachau will do him good.”

“We would be better served if he joined us in the operation,” Germany said without pausing. "His injuries would be healed in time for it.”

* * *

“Surely physical force is not the only effective tool on captives?”

“Don’t ask a question when you mean to make a statement. Even in speech, you must be decisive. And yes, beating him into submission might take time. Intimidation is as efficient as an aggressive first strike. With a human, there are many options, and using the unexpected would be wise to keep him off-balance. With nations, we are hardier than most, so bodily harm would not be as much of an issue. It would take a threat to something they truly care about for them to yield.”

“What would make you yield, brother?”

“Hah! They can try, but they will never succeed. I will stake my life on it! And before you even ask, by the time you’ll enter your first battle, I will have taught you everything I know! You’ll be too strong and smart for anyone to make you do anything you don’t want to!”

“Must you be so noisy?”

“Hahaha, your ears are also turning into a horrible shade of red! Well brace yourself; your training has already started! Expect me to get even noisier if we get captured!”

“I won’t permit it. I’d rather die than lose you.”

“What an appalling thing to say. You think I am that weak, that I would not endure when the nations of the world would come together to crush me?”

“…”

“…Don’t cry, West. It won’t happen as long as we’re together. You won’t get rid of me that easily.”

* * *

It took a broken rib for Prussia to allow himself to vomit blood. Germany got his breathing under control before the sounds of retching finished.

He let his voice carry to everyone listening. “You might think this is madness. It’s not madness if we win. Der Führer’s victories would be ours, Prussia. What are we but his loyal servants?”

He pulled his brother up by the hair, lifting his head high enough to be seen from above the table. “All that I have and fight for, and everything that I believe in, wouldn’t be possible without you. So I thank you for giving me the chance to even the scales.”

Despite the pain he must be in, Prussia kept his gaze clear and steady as he listened.

“Here are your terms. You are to disavow any association to those troublemakers. They are failures as German men, who have nothing to show for themselves except that they would bite the hand that feeds them. The shameful and weak should be treated with exactness of a surgeon cutting off gangrene.”

Prussia started to express his misgivings after the last war. No matter how he admired Germany’s former boss before this one’s recent rise to power, Prussia disapproved of the blame for how the last war ended unfairly laid on the Jewish soldiers. It beggared belief to watch those who fought and shed blood alongside them to swallow these insinuations, and their slow abandonment by most of their own neighbors. The growing number of those born in this land seeking refuge elsewhere was an indictment of the dissolution and the disenfranchisement within society. The increasing unrest and fighting almost seemed secondary, but they reassured each other that these rough patches happened all the time throughout history. They could still hope in the undiminished spirit in every German that things will turn out all right.

The creation of Dachau drove out the last of their denial. It was a gun pointed at their own people, and the both of them would be no exception.

Once they recognized that they were captured by the will of their people, by then it was too late. Their hands were effectively tied by the bonds they shared. And the person holding their lives in his hands did not care.

Germany saw the long-lasting aftermath of revolutions in his relatively short life, and where the trajectory of nations being forced to abide by the dictates of one man would lead. No matter how it would be akin to cutting out his own heart to do so, Prussia would consider burning the ships, leaving his post, and even outright civil war, to be a small price to pay. He needed his leash loose enough for him to act, so that his people won’t die. Germany was no different.

He knew how his brother’s mind worked. Given Prussia’s unenviable talent to provoke irritation and headaches, it was short work for him to get people fixated on his attitude as a visible sign of weakness, and become a target. He was grimly relieved that his boss took the bait.

Now it was up to him to pick up the slack.

These men would not be here if they weren’t more cautious than a regular soldier in the army. They were not swayed by notions of decency, overwhelming charisma or base fear. And if they were good, they would be driven like he and his brother to do what they can to salvage something from this. If they were to lead their men to certain death, more than the most advanced weaponry the military engineers could offer, they needed to be armed with the highest intention in order to act.

No amount of victory or sacrifice would matter as long as life itself was meaningless. In that sense, nations and even entire civilizations are more fragile and mortal, when a single individual can actively work to bring about its destruction.

They were all Germans, but they could also be ideological fanatics, or the ruthless opposition. He’d like to think that he knew which is which, but who knew what the future held? Both can be true. The indistinguishable quality between the two should not come as a surprise considering the morals of the current generation.

His boss presented two positions for the people to belong to—those who would not dare to cross him, and everyone else.

It was all Germany could do to create an identifiable power base away from that false binary, and reel in people they could trust.

Treating this as a recruitment strategy based on the latest intelligence helped him create the distance he required from the hideous suffering he had just subjected to his brother.

“In return, I will make us into something greater than anything the world has ever seen. My accomplishments will ensure that your name will live on for a thousand years. All you have to do is follow me. Does that please you?”

Gut churning, Germany raised his eyes, and realized to his relief that he could see the fracturing on some of the faces that looked back at him. None of them were set on mutiny, because their duty came first, and they would be constantly watched. But at the critical hour when they would be tested, they would look to Germany instead of one man’s wishes. It was a silent alliance that could give them a surge of courage to stop following orders, and find a new path to get their people out of this alive.

Expecting no response, he let go and watched Prussia slump back to the floor. “You will report to your assignment on the thirtieth of June, 0700 sharp. I trust you could see your way out.”

Germany wanted to gather his brother in his arms, tend to his wounds, and beg for him to tell if he had done well. But it was not safe. They could still be used against each other, and there was no one around to set a limit to how far they could be broken before they were killed.

He marched straight ahead. He did not look back at the fallen figure of his brother.

* * *

**1947:**

“We have reliable accounts of you defending the—veterans, or was it the communists, they all look the same now—from the purge. That was decent of you. Did you actually think that through, or was it just a blip in the radar with your utter lack of conscience?”

Prussia did not sneer, nor did his voice crow in the self-aggrandizing tone the other nations were used to hearing from him. He spoke with rich conviction that belied the shaking of his thin hands in their heavy restraints. “Honor cannot prevent us from falling captive to a wicked cause.”

“Your boss couldn’t steal your honor when you already threw it away.”

“Serving that same cause does not obviate our honor.”

“Fine defense from someone who murdered his own people.”

“The duty of a nation lies on that which would endure longer than the human lifespan. Virtues. Principles. We were meant to be loyal to these, not to one man.” He paused to make a shallow inhale. “Loyalty never demands suicide, or it will lose all meaning. And as long as I am still standing, I would rather murder my own people with my own hands than let West die.”

Germany held his breath in the silence that followed. He felt as if he was about to jump out of his skin or set fire to anything in his path, if it meant it could get him to his brother sooner.

“Prussia. You were always seen as a power hungry opportunist whose only loyalty is to himself—”

Germany clenched his teeth to contain his reflexive defense of his brother’s honor.

“—But you’ve shouldered that burden alone long enough. From now on, Germany could take on the weight. This is the only justice that will be afforded to you.”

Something in his chest loosened. Every step they have taken could be seen as moot point the moment they were captured by the Allies, but in this world they had all wrought, symbols mattered.

Germany would rather be a hated symbol if it meant that he and his brother would stay together.

Prussia met his eyes from across the room, and gave him a bittersweet smile. It was past the point where he cared who could see. There were no more commands that must be carried out without fail. He was not bound by duty anymore, except for one.

When his brother’s fingers curled in a familiar gesture in front of him, there was no time for Germany to scream before the sound of a single gunshot tore through the air and echoed in the name of freedom.


End file.
